For Teachers and Parents

Everyone can access law - with a little help from you.

Parents and teachers are better placed than anyone to see a young person’s potential. You know they’re capable of brilliant things, and you don’t think social background or financial circumstances should hold them back.

Now, you can make sure of it. Through PRIME, you can connect your young person with legal work experience at any one of more than 60 leading UK law firms.

Whether you get in touch with the firms or even just pass our details on, you’ll do your bit to help them access law - and you’ll change their future in the process.

Getting young people in PRIME is FREE

You don’t pay to be involved, and your young people won’t pay either. We cover the costs of application, work experience, travel, and any necessary accommodation if the student’s work experience is away from home.

We're opening doors to the biggest firms

This is more than just a visit to an office. This is training, advice, and an introduction to life at some of the UK’s biggest law firms. Our ninety member firms include absolutely every firm in the UK Top 20 – all offering the same chance to students from underprivileged backgrounds.

There's no experience required

Despite the impressive firms on our list, we don’t need or expect your young people to have any legal experience. If you’ve got someone who needs a chance to shine, and they meet our background requirements, this is for them.

What we look for

School age

Your student is in one of:

Year 9 to Year 13 (England & Wales)

S2 to S6 (Scotland)

Year 3 to 4, Lower Sixth or Upper Sixth (Northern Ireland)

At a state school

Your student is attending, and has attended from aged 11, a state funded, non-fee paying school/college.

First generation to go to university...

Your student must have grown up in a household where no parent or guardian attended University.

They must also meet one or more of the following:

Your student must also meet one or more of the following:

– Currently be in receipt of, or have previously received, free school meals, Pupil Premium, Education Maintenance Allowance and/or 16 to 19 Bursary

– Have been, or are currently, in local authority care (for a period of 3 months or longer)

– Be, or have been, a full-time or part-time carer

– Came to the UK as a refugee or asylum seeker

– Attending a state school or college with:
a) below average A-Level or Higher point score and/or
b) low rate of progression to higher education.

Note: young people who meet the local authority care criterion do not need to meet any other criterion. These criteria are not exhaustive and may be amended over time.

1Each year the Department for Education publishes data on schools’ average results and progression rates to higher education. Our system flags schools that have low results and poor progression rates and lists them as an Œtarget school. See which schools are in the Œtarget list here.

2When looking at first generation university attendants, we also ask for the age a parent completed their qualification and the name and location of the institution. This helps us to determine, for example, if a parent has a degree from Harvard verses a parent with a qualification from a community college in Ghana.

3We use a publically available dataset called POLAR 3, which specifically looks at higher education progression rates and deprivation by postcode.

I'm a teacher: how do I get involved?

If you’ve got this far, you hopefully already know about what PRIME does and why – but if you still want to know more, you can find out here. So how do you get involved?

Talk to your students about PRIME

If you’re teaching a class where PRIME might be relevant – say, a careers advice session – talk to your students about what we do. Encourage them to go to the website, and to talk to you about their options.

Take an active interest

If you’re a mentor/guidance teacher to individual students who might be interested, sit with them, take them through how to apply, and offer to review their application. You might even use our finding experience tool to help them look for firms they could apply to.

Raise awareness

Spread the word around your school. If you’re in an area where lots of your colleagues might have eligible students, direct them here and encourage them to tell their own classes.

Get in touch with firms

Some of our firms have long-term relationships with state schools in the local area. If you’re interested in a school-wide initiative and there’s a firm near you, you can use our tool to find them and get in contact in the first instance.

Find a firm

Whether you want to find out which firms might be best for your students, or whether you want to find firms that might be open to starting a long-term relationship with your school, all you need to do is enter a postcode or area below.

I'm a parent: what can I do?

If you’re a parent of a young person who could benefit from our opportunities, there’s lots you can do to help them get involved.

Talk to your child about PRIME and careers in law

Find out if Law might be something they’re interested in, or could have a think about. If they’re interested, or they don’t know much about what’s involved, you can learn more together on the ‘Students’ section of our website.

Take an active interest

Sit with them, take them through how to apply and where firms might be, and offer to review their application. Try not to do it for them though – it’s important they should get their own application experience.

Find about the firms that might interest them

Your young person has some big choices to make, and it’ll help you both if you’re as well-informed as you can be. Through our finding experience tool you can find firms near you, and from there, you can also look at their website. Knowing more will help with your child’s application – and might also help with any worries or questions you have about who your child would be working for.

Commonly asked questions

This is a big moment for you and your young person. It might be their first work experience. If they’re going on a residential placement, it might be their first big trip away from home without you. Either way, you might have some questions for us.

If your question isn’t answered below, you can get in touch with us at: admin@primecommitment.co.uk

What do I need to pay?

Our work experience opportunities are completely free, and our member firms pay for any travel, food or accommodation necessary if your child will be in another city.

My child will be at a firm in another city. Where will they stay and who will look after them at night?

Each firm organises accommodation for its work experience students, and they’ll be housed in secure and safe accommodation – usually either hotels or vacant flats owned by nearby universities or colleges. Either way, your student will be part of a group of students their age, all looked after by at least one onsite supervisor from the law firm.

My child is going to another city. Should I worry about security?

No – don’t worry. Your child will be staying in secure and monitored accommodation in the evening. During the day, they’ll be working at their chosen law firm, and our city firms tend to operate their own security pass systems so only authorised colleagues enter the building. We’ll make sure you have contact details for the accommodation and for the law firm in advance – and of course, your child may have their own phone if you need to get in touch.

Do I need to worry about travel costs?

No. Whether your child is travelling to another city to stay for a week, or whether they’re travelling to and from a law firm in your home city, travel costs are paid for by the law firm. Sometimes that’s done by refunding you afterwards, but if you can’t afford to pay for travel upfront, we can do that, and it’s something the firm will talk to you about in advance.